How I Lost 30 Pounds In 3 Months Post-Pregnancy

I’ve gotten a lot of messages asking me how I’ve been losing the baby weight. The last three months have been very challenging. During my second pregnancy, I gained around 50 pounds and, for some reason, it’s been a lot harder to lose weight this time than it was after my first pregnancy.

But I’ve lost 30 pounds in the three months since giving birth. So here’s the diet and fitness regimen that I have been applying to help me do it.

Diet: For the past 40 days, I have been eating a strictly vegan diet. Singer Beyoncé recently announced her decision to go vegan in the lead-up to Coachella. She’s been using meal delivery service 22 Day Nutrition. I haven’t been using a delivery service, but I have been pretty strict when it comes to what I make in the kitchen.

So what is a vegan diet? It’s eating more plant-based foods and cutting out animal products like meat, seafood, eggs and dairy. I’m not going to lie: It’s not easy giving up dairy. But going vegan has given me the best results with weight loss.

It’s interesting when you observe a vegan diet. You eat more vegetables and whole grains. And when you cut out processed food, your diet is naturally lower in saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar. The good part about living in a city like Los Angeles is that there are a lot of vegan restaurants, like Cafe Gratitude. And a lot of non-vegan restaurants – like one of my favorite places, Craig’s – offer plenty of vegan options.

Hydration: Drinking water helps boost your metabolism, cleanse your body of waste, and can act as an appetite suppressant. And when you drink more water, your body retains less water, which helps you drop those extra pounds of water weight.

Fitness: The first month after the birth was very difficult in terms of working out. I took a lot of long walks outside my house. It was difficult to do any sit-ups or squats. The easiest and only painless workout was just quiet walks with my dog. In my second month post-pregnancy, I started stretching a lot, in the morning and at night. I also began using weights at home to work on my arms and core muscles. Three months after Christian was born, I started working out with a trainer. I’ve been doing pilates, weights, boxing and a lot of resistance training. On my own time, I take 45-minute hikes, which are equally healthy for my body and my mind.

Breastfeeding: Although I didn’t breastfeed my son for long, I did notice a major weight loss during the time I did. I breastfed for two months. When you breastfeed, you typically lose about a pound a week. As long as you’re burning more calories than you’re consuming, you will lose the pregnancy weight.

ShapeHouse: Shape House is an “urban sweat lodge” with locations in California and New York. The sweat beds helped me lose weight the first time around. Sweating is directly linked to weight loss. A typical sweat session at Shape House can help you burn between 800 to 1,600 calories between the 55 minutes in the bed and the 36-hour metabolic boost that follows.

I still have 20 more pounds to go. As soon as I lose all the weight, I will give you guys an update about what I did in order to lose these last stubborn pounds. Unlike last time, I am not in a rush to lose the weight. I believe it’s important to be healthy and to give my body the time it needs to heal. After all, I just had a baby, and that alone was a lot of stress on my body.